xiii, 257 pages : 25 cm

This book is the first social history of the census from its origins to the present and has become the standard history of the population census in the United States. Margo J. Anderson's scholarly text effectively bridges the fields of history and public policy, demonstrating how the census both reflects the country's extraordinary demographic character and constitutes an influential tool for policy making. Her book is essential reading for all those who use census data, historical or current, in their studies or work

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-249) and index

The census and the new nation: apportionment, Congress, and the progress of the United States -- Sectional crisis and census reform in the 1850s -- Counting slaves and freed Blacks: war and reconstruction by the numbers -- The census and industrial America in the Gilded Age -- Building the federal statistical system in the early twentieth century -- The tribal twenties revisited: national origins, malapportionment, and cheating by the numbers -- Counting the unemployed and the crisis of the Great Depression -- The high-tech census and the growth of the welfare state -- The 1980 census and the politics of counting -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Census costs, population and apportionment data, 1790 to 1980

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